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Get Open

Get Open is a Hip-Hop group formed in the late 90s in NYC. Composed of VonMeista, Zook, Kiambu & SibaGiba, the group has traveled and performed as headliners in Europe and the USA over the years. Get Open has has shared the stage artists such as KRS 1/BDP, De La Soul, Jungle Brothers, Tha Alkoholiks, Special Ed, Dead Prez, Lester Bowie and many others.

This hip-hop collective has been in existence since 1994 and was founded by SibaGiba (Producer/MC) when he attended SUNY Purchase College for Music. The other members, Kiambu (MC), VonMeista (MC/Producer), Zook (MC), and Los (Spoken Word/MC) also attended Purchase College for music quickly joined SibaGiba and formed a group.

Get Open has traveled and performed as headliners in Germany and France over the years and has also opened for artists such as KRS 1/BDP, De La Soul, Jungle Brothers,Tha Alkoholiks, Special Ed, and many others in the US. The group was also featured with the late Jazz Trumpeter Lester Bowie and his Hip-Hop Feel-Harmonic orchestra in 1995, which assembled more than 40 musicians and Get Open.

During their senior year, 1996, they gathered funds, recorded and mixed songs at the school studios and then released their first 12inch single. It caught the attention of some West coasts DJs like J.Rocc (Beat Junkies), DJ Numark (Jurassic 5), Truly Odd (Heavyweights, Strong Arm steady), Peanut Butter Wolf (Stones Throw) and T-Love the MC, then journalist at URB magazine which wrote a column about our record, which got things bubbling out there.

From that single, Yellow Productions (France) today known for producing Dance/Pop act DJ Bob Sinclar, signed the group to an EP deal which went on to sell 5,000 units in Europe without any promo. It featured Sadat X of Brand Nubian. Following that EP, Ubiquity records offered a LP deal to Get Open. They signed and recorded 18 songs but it never was released due to musical differences with the label. After that situation, Siba enjoyed great success producing for Everlast (House of Pain) multi- platinum and Grammy nominated album “Whitey For Sings The Blues”. This success prompted Siba to invest and form Overtime Records Inc. The first release was a solo 12 inch single of VonMeista featuring Sadat X in association with Ozone Music (Co-Flow-El P, Mike Ladd, etc…).

After a few months, Get Open was ready to release a new single “Overtime” with Vinia Mojica (De La Soul, Tribe, Mos Def, Common) in 2000 but was never released. Later that year, Siba formed Brüknahm with Mr.Wilson, and has also worked for Jettsonz Productions (Nina Sky, Sean Paul) and co-founded a non profit organization, The Hip-Hop Loves Foundation in 2009.

Siba is a licensed NYC city tour guide and continues to produce various artists;

Kiambu is a massage therapist;

VonMeista makes beats and is an information assistant at the NY Public Library;

Zook is PHD Doctor in Criminology & Professor at Sacramento State University;